My experiences of living in South Korea, how they happen, why they matter and what it means to experience life from another culture's perspective.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Korea: A Year Later

It's been a year since I left Korea and it's time for an update. Three weeks after leaving Korea I went to China with my family and had an incredible experience. Since I shared my experience of living in Korea I've decided to share our trip to China as well. You can go to that blog by clicking here y'all.

After China I settled back to Tennessee and tried to figure out what to do next with TL. It was difficult to figure out what to do because I felt like I was looking at everything after getting new glasses. Things that used to be important to me, worrying about high gas prices for example, no longer were. Things that I used to take for granted, open green space, I no longer did. (If you're a former expat or service member you know what I'm talking about. If you're reading this and you're in one of those two groups and are having trouble adjusting shoot me an email. If you're around Nashville, we'll meet up and the first round is on me).

That adjustment wasn't the only difficulty I had. Trying to fit back into a domestic life wasn't easy while having to answer the only two questions everyone wanted to ask. The first one being, "So when are you getting a real job?" The second, "Well if you're not sure then when are you going to grad school?" The truth is both are not easy to accomplish when you return. You have to understand the type of job you want to apply for or you have to be prepared to invest the time, energy and money for grad school. One thing we "Recessive Millennials", my term for those of us that graduated from college in 2007-2010, have learned is that having a degree doesn't guarantee a job. You have to be specific in your skill set to obtain a position in the career you want to work in.

All of this combined made TL and I realize after the summer that we were no longer a good fit together. It was difficult, and it took some time, to move on but I've grown to love Nashville and I'm a better person because of our break-up. My time in Korea taught me a great many things about maturity and being self-aware and it highlighted my love for travel and writing. My time here in Nashville has given me the opportunity to apply those lessons.

Couldn't pass up taking the lil bro out to a Preds game for his 21st!

One of the things that I kept thinking about and talking about, as I moved on from our break-up, was traveling and exploring. Clearly, I'm someone who's always been interested in going to new places but also to learn new things. I enjoy reading about a new discovery or seeing a new place we humans have gone to. So that is what I've decided to do. I've joined the Peace Corps and am teaching English in Macedonia. Check out my adventures here.

3 comments:

Hi Logan, nice to see you updated your blog so long after finishing up in Korea! That's rare. I currently live in Korea and, if you don't mind, I'd like to pick your brain a bit about the job hunting process that you went through. Would you mind emailing me? I'm at mmccauley //a t// gmail //d0tcom

Don't worry, I'm not some scammer or sales person! I'm just a guy in Korea doing some research on teacher recruiting.